[John] Ruskin would have been horrified to recognize himself as the apologist for private as against social rights. But such he was. He had acquired as ideals the prejudices of a society which was unconsciously engaged in justifying the search for private advantage through the elimination of competition.

Large is the number of “Progressives” (people such as Bernie Sanders and Harold Meyerson) who, in opposing free trade, oppose vigorous and open market competition – and who believe in their bones that, with this opposition, they further the interests of the poor, the powerless, the downtrodden, the weak. These protectionists are blind to the reality that their opposition to open competition and free trade in fact gives aid and comfort to crony capitalists who are unjustly enriched by such policies – policies that inflict disproportionate harm on the poor, the powerless, the downtrodden, the weak.